{"id":322860,"date":"2026-03-01T04:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T04:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/322860\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T04:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T04:03:08","slug":"all-irelands-stay-in-july-munster-hurling-runners-up-get-home-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/322860\/","title":{"rendered":"All-Irelands stay in July, Munster hurling runners-up get home advantage"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALL-IRELANDS STAY IN JULY:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Facing a heavy defeat, the All-Ireland senior finals will remain in July next year after a motion to extend the inter-county season by two weeks was withdrawn at Annual Congress on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The proposal, which also called for the disbandment of January\u2019s pre-season competitions, was opposed by a number of speakers.<\/p>\n

Cork had already voted at their county board meeting against any extension of the inter-county calender due to the impact it would have on dual players at club level.<\/p>\n

GAA director general P\u00e1raic Duffy outlined the reasons why his committee recommended the changes. He highlighted the four All-Ireland senior semi-finals and finals were played over just 22 days and the \u201coverload\u201d impinged on the promotion of games.<\/p>\n

A related motion, requiring a simple majority, the Gaelic Players Association\u2019s recommendation to define the inter-county window as 30 weeks garnered 66.7% support.<\/p>\n

HOME ADVANTAGE:\u00a0<\/p>\n

The All-Ireland senior preliminary hurling quarter-finals are no more after a Laois proposal received 94.1% backing. Instead, the Munster runners-up will this year face the third-placed team in Leinster and vice-versa in All-Ireland quarter-finals with the provincial finalists expected to have home advantage.<\/p>\n

\"Cork'sCork’s Eoin Downey and Danny Sutcliffe of Dublin in action in the 2024 All-Ireland quarter-final in Thurles. Picture: INPHO\/Laszlo Geczo<\/p>\n

For example, such a scenario would have seen the Cork hurlers head to Dublin in 2024 for their quarter-final which took place at Semple Stadium, where last summer Limerick would have hosted the Dubs at the Gaelic Grounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n As well as benefitting the provincial runners-up, attendances will no doubt be boosted as quarter-final double-headers haven’t caught the imagination lately.\n <\/p>\n

Also, a Joe McDonagh semi-final will be part of the 2027 season. The second and third-placed counties will face off to meet the table-toppers in the second-tier final.<\/p>\n

FOOTBALL REPLAYS:\u00a0<\/p>\n

From this season, replays will apply to provincial football finals that finish level after extra time. Almost three-quarters of delegates (73.5%) endorsed the Central Council motion. In the new All-Ireland format, provincial finalists have home advantage in the first round of the qualifiers, though this change could see teams out for three weeks in a row.<\/p>\n

\"CorkCork lost to Kerry after extra time in last year’s Munster final but Cathail O’Mahony’s late effort in the last play would have sent it to a penalty shootout. Picture: Piaras \u00d3 M\u00eddheach\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

There were two penalty shootouts in the Ulster championship in recent years while Cork beat Limerick in the Munster hurling decider last June, though this rule was for football only.<\/p>\n

ASSERTIVE:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Delegates endorsed a new inter-county certification programme, requiring a simple majority, it received 59.1% backing.<\/p>\n

To be certified, counties will have to adhere to a number of measures such as providing GPS data, annual maximum expenditure limits, inter-county mangers undertaking induction courses and a limit of 10 paid backroom team members. The exact details have yet to be worked out and the ambiguity was one of the reasons some delegates voted against it.<\/p>\n

REF RESPECT:\u00a0<\/p>\n

A new dissent rule will be introduced to hurling where a free will be advanced 30 metres in such an instance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Given the accuracy and distance of free-takers in the modern era, this will surely have the desired effect.\n <\/p>\n

For underage games, a player found to have committed the infraction will also be sin-binned and replaced by 10 minutes, which should have a significant impact on cutting out backchat on the field.<\/p>\n

MAJOR MINORS:<\/p>\n

Fermanagh\u2019s motion to reattach the All-Ireland minor finals as the curtain-raisers to the senior deciders was soundly defeated, receiving just 15.8%.<\/p>\n

A series of opposing speakers included the Dublin, Galway and Waterford chairmen, with Neil Moore explaining the experience of the D\u00e9\u00edse All-Ireland minor hurling success as a standalone game in Thurles last June was superior to the 2013 victory when it felt like the teenagers were being rushed afterwards to make way for the senior clash.<\/p>\n

Having the games played on a standalone basis also allows everyone interested to attend and facilitates cheaper tickets for U16s.<\/p>\n

ADAPTABLE:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both demographic committee motions were backed including allowing 12-a-side teams to reflect the difficulties faced by rural clubs in fielding sides.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cork have moved to limit the number of amalgamated sides at underage level and smaller-sided games would certainly assist clubs struggling for numbers in fielding independently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALL-IRELANDS STAY IN JULY:\u00a0 Facing a heavy defeat, the All-Ireland senior finals will remain in July next year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4365,1965,1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-322860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-gaelic-football","tag-hurling","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}